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Wilsonville baseball falls to Pendleton

The Wildcats were unable to overcome the Buckaroos in seven inning playoff showdown

Wilsonville ran up one of the most impressive winning streaks in 5A with 11 straight games heading into the first round of playoffs. After reaching the No. 7 rank, the team was matched up with the Pendleton Buckaroos, a school Wilsonville has become familiar with in athletics over the past school year.

With the Wildcats taking to the road this time, Pendleton had home field advantage and it paid off in the end. Wilsonville fell against the Buckaroos 4-3 on Wednesday, May 22.

Pendleton led 2-0 for a majority of the game, putting up runs in the second and third innings. Junior Tanner Sweek singled into center field to bring in senior Ryan Stahl in the second, and Ty Beers brought in senior Justin Duso for the second run.

Wilsonville was unable to score until the top of the fifth inning. With junior Keegan Shivers singling to get on base, and freshman Max Bledy and senior Cade Edmondson getting the bases on balls, junior Cole Kleckner came up big. The Wildcat singled on a line drive into right field to bring Shivers and Bledy to tie the game up at 2-2.

With a scoreless sixth inning, things were on the line in the seventh. Wilsonville got a run in the top of the inning. Once again Kleckner was the Wildcats man, singling on a ground ball to center field to bring in Edmondson who had doubled the play before. That was the extent of the damage though, as a strikeout, fly out, and ground out sealed the inning.

Pendleton answered in the bottom of the seventh, recording a single RBI and finally capitalizing on an error by third baseman Bledy. It was an unceremonious way for such an impressive string of victories and a generally strong season.

In 27 at-bats against Pendleton, Wilsonville recorded seven hits, a trio of runs, and a trio of RBIs. Kleckner had the best stat line with two hits and three RBIs. Edmondson and Bledy had a run, hit, and base on balls (each) at the end of the day. Wilsonville had a trio of pitchers on the mound during the game, junior Braden Woodworth, senior Nolan Thebiay, and junior Andrew Classen. Combined, the three Wildcats threw a combined .587 pitching percentage on 104 pitches.

Wilsonville ends its season with a 19-9 record, and a 15-3 record inside the Northwest Oregon Conference (NWOC). The Wildcats shared that league record with La Salle, but with La Salle winning the season series, they took the league title.

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